Summer Camp Registration Opens January 4, 2025
Nature at Your Student’s Fingertips
Public and Private School Nature Programs
North Shore Nature Programs brings education and discovery in the outdoors to the classroom. We work with public schools and private schools in North Shore school districts to bring unique, innovative environmental education right to your schoolyard!
Research-Backed
Naturalist-in-Residence Program
Research shows that multiple experiences in nature with a consistent leader are the most effective means of environmental education.
NSNP’s featured program is our Naturalist-in-Residence Program. This unique and innovative educational opportunity provides your students with a trained naturalist who will make 5+ visits to your classroom.
On each visit, we’ll integrate relevant ecology lessons into your current curriculum with an array of:
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Scientific inquiry
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Games and activities
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Guided exploration
Students thrive with more time outdoors and will love learning and interacting with nature in their very own schoolyard.
We’ll tailor each session to pair with the Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards your class is currently working on. Specific program topics and content are based on discussions with classroom teachers.
Traditional Enrichment Programs
Hands-on 60-minute programs focused on specific lessons, activities, and concepts.
Like our Naturalist-in-Residence program, we connect each local ecology theme with your existing classroom curriculum.
“Children are born naturalists. They explore the world with all of their senses, experiment in the environment, and communicate their discoveries to those around them.”
- William Wordsworth
Cost And Program Information
$100/hr., minimum 10 visits/classroom
$115/hr., minimum 5 visits/classroom
$125/hr., 1-4 visits/classroom
Max: 25 students/classroom
Kindergarten/1st Grade:
Living Things
During this active, hands-on program, students will scour their schoolyard looking for examples of both living and nonliving items. NSNP’s educators will lead students in a guided exploration of their items and begin to identify characteristics of living and non-living using grade-level vocabulary. By the end of the program, students will be able to state three characteristics that define a living thing.
Animal Adaptations – Senses
Using a series of hands-on games and activities, NSNP educators will explain how our local animals use their sight, hearing, touch, and sense of smell to help them find food, communicate with one another, and alert themselves to danger.
2nd Grade:
Earth Changes – Wind, Water, and Weathering
During this three-part program, students will begin to understand how erosion and weathering can be beneficial and detrimental to our local landscapes. Students will learn the recipe for soil, how weathering and decomposition help build soil, and will work together to create their own rich, beneficial soil sample. In the second lesson, they’ll focus on the effects of erosion and how humans and nature can mitigate it. Working in small groups, students will be assigned a mini-water table where they will simulate flooding along a river. Using various tools, they will experiment with different options to control run-off and bank erosion. During the third lesson, the students will once again use the mini-water tables to develop models of flood control along the banks of a river.
Please note: This program is best conducted during warm weather months so that the program can be held outside.
Homes are Habitats
During this program, students will identify specific plants and animals that might live in their schoolyard and what those organisms require for survival. Students will then head outside with ID guides to identify organisms and assess the habitat to determine which of these animals might call the school home.
3rd Grade:
Plant and Animal Life Cycles
During this stand-alone or multi-day program, students learn about different types of life cycles through hands-on group activities and outdoor exploration. Students also discuss why it might be to an animal’s advantage to go through metamorphosis and how that is connected to seasonal changes.
Ecosystems from the Ground Up
Starting with erosion, weathering, decomposition, and soil formation students will look at an ecosystem’s composition from the ground up. Special attention will be paid to how components of soil are constantly being formed and recycled through natural processes (and how humans can enhance these processes). Students will then focus on the habitat requirements of plants and how they obtain the resources they need (and how humans can help or hinder). Finally, we will explore the role that pollinators play in human food production (and how the use of pesticides might affect them).
4th Grade:
Animal and Plant Structures
During this stand-alone or multi-day program, students will look for animals and plants that live in their schoolyards through the lens of a specific survival requirement such as defense, obtaining food, obtaining oxygen, locomotion, or adapting to seasonal change. Working in small groups, students will identify an animal and then present it and its specific adaptations to the class.
Is There Room for Everyone?
Students will learn the importance of open space and how we can protect animal habitats while balancing the needs of humans. This program will be tailored to your community, focusing on your local animals. An outdoor, interactive activity is the capstone of this informative and exciting program.
Earth Changes – Wind, Water, and Weathering
During this three-part program, students will begin to understand how erosion and weathering can be beneficial and detrimental to our local landscapes. During the first lesson, students will learn the recipe for soil, how weathering and decomposition help build soil, and will work together to create their own rich, beneficial soil sample. The second lesson will focus on the effects of erosion and how humans and nature can mitigate it. Working in small groups, students will be assigned a mini-water table where they will simulate flooding along a river. Using various tools, they will experiment with different options to control run-off and bank erosion. During the third lesson, the students will once again use the mini-water tables to develop models of flood control along the banks of a river. This program is best conducted during warm weather months so that the program can be held outside.
5th Grade:
Watershed Study
Watersheds play a critical role in the health of our ecosystems, and the health of humans. Many municipalities in New England draw their drinking water from their local watershed. So how can we determine if a watershed is healthy? If a body of water is accessible from the schoolyard, students will use ponding equipment to assess animal life and water quality test kits to test for key chemical indicators. If a body of water is not adjacent to the school, students will use mini-water tables to model watersheds and assess the best methods for controlling erosion and pollution. Additionally, students will assess the ecosystem surrounding their school, and its proximity to areas of potential runoff, and create a model of how a habitat surrounding the school benefits the larger watershed.
Energy Flows, Nutrients Cycle
This program is best suited for a 2-hour enrichment or a multi-day visit. During this exciting, hands-on program, students will learn that all of Earth’s energy originates with the sun, and is then transferred through plants to animals. Students will be provided with a small research project in which they will learn about trophic levels and how energy is passed between these levels. To close out the flow of energy, students will learn about the important role of decomposers and detritivores who recycle nutrients while using up the last of the sun’s energy.
The Science of Compost
We’ve all heard about the benefits of compost, but what is compost and how is it formed? How does it compare to soil? What are the benefits of each? In this program, students will get their hands dirty searching for decomposers and learn how both soil and compost are formed by creating their own examples of each!
6th Grade:
Soil Science
This program can include 1-3 visits per classroom. During the first visit, our educators will explain the four basic components of soil and their relative proportions. Then students will become “forces of nature” and will actively weather available rocks and decompose organic material in order to make their own soil. A second visit will focus on erosion or weathering. Students will explore their schoolyard looking for examples of weathering and erosion and discuss how both can be accelerated or curbed by human intervention. Students will also dig a soil pit to observe soil layering and perform percolation tests on soil samples. The third lesson focuses on how organic matter is recycled and added to soil through the process of composting. These lessons can stand alone or be combined in any way that best fits a school’s needs.